Wall Street bankers grapple with the end of the corporate dress code

Wall Street, the last bastion of traditional corporate dress code, has been loosening its tie—and in some cases, getting rid of it completely—as male bankers increasingly take their sartorial cues from clients.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s

GS, +0.53%

new chief, David Solomon, appeared on stage in October without a tie at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference in Laguna Niguel, Calif. He had worn a tie at the event the prior year, when he was the firm’s No. 2.

Citigroup Inc.

C, +0.44%

Chief Executive Michael Corbat went sans necktie at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif. for the first time last year. He was also wearing sneakers from startup Allbirds.

Bankers, retailers and style consultants say a cultural shift is under way.

While women on Wall Street have long had more complex calculations when calibrating how they dress, men have relied on a suit, slicked hair and shiny shoes for decades. Now, that strict sartorial code has given way to situational dressing. As Mr. Corbat likes to say, “You dress for your client.”